


Hydrophilia

by threewalls



Category: Free!
Genre: Asexual Character, Coming Out, Community: kink_bingo, Community: trope_bingo, M/M, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 08:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threewalls/pseuds/threewalls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka and Rin both love swimming best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hydrophilia

**Author's Note:**

> For my "voyeurism" square for kink bingo and "coming out (of the closet)" for trope bingo.
> 
> With thanks to Mec.

It starts on a Monday morning, when Nagisa comes to practice with his eyes sparkling, carrying a zombie-like Rei draped over his back. He stayed over at Rei's last night so they could both revise for an English test after lunch today, "but we didn't get much revision done!" he crows. 

His voice wakes Rei up enough, to start lecturing them about varieties of sexual expression from a pink notebook, switching it between his hands as he strips his uniform off from over his swimsuit.

"And in conclusion," Rei says, pausing to push up his glasses, "I have discovered that I am bisexual!"

Sitting on a bench with his hands under his chin, Nagisa has been watching him with rapt attention. "Nagisa is Nagisa," he says. Rei's face goes the colour of his glasses' frames; it doesn't conceal the bite-bruises dotting his pecs.

Makoto says that he likes girls. 

Gou says she likes _men _. When they all turn to look at her, she huffs, and says they were taking too long getting changed, anyway, and herds them out of the changing room.__

__Haruka dives into the pool, and he can still hear Nagisa's voice muted through the water. Nagisa's always even louder when he doesn't get enough sleep._ _

__\---_ _

__Haruka trains with Rin once a week, Rin sneaking Haruka into his school's pool at one in the morning. Things are better between them now, after all the tournaments last year. Rin doesn't trust Haruka to train to peak condition without surveillance. Haruka doesn't need to sleep when he could be swimming._ _

__They do laps, length after length of the pool, turn and kick. No second-timer, no spotter, no talking and only the emergency lights._ _

__Haruka is lost in the streaming smoothness of the water and the burn of exertion when he hears Rin stop. He takes another three lengths before pulling out of his rhythm, treading water a lane away from Rin, who only scowls at him and turns to pull himself from the water._ _

__\---_ _

__Haruka stares out at the window, at the rain droplets that collect into a stream down the glass. It's warmer now. If the rain stops by lunchtime, Makoto might not protest too much if Haruka tries to swim in the ocean after school._ _

__In Australia, you can swim in the ocean all year around. Rin came back from Australia with better English and a worse smile. But Haruka doesn't think it's the ocean he misses._ _

__At practice, he bends under Gou's umbrella to ask if Rin had a girlfriend in Australia. Haruka can feel the other club members looking at him._ _

__"He never mentioned one," Gou says, finally. "He only talked about training, and beating the other guys at his school."_ _

__\---_ _

__Haruka can only just see Rin's face, faint reflections of the emergency lighting in the water on his skin. Rin had again stopped early tonight, treading water at the side, watching Haruka swim._ _

__Haruka has never had a girlfriend, either, though there are plenty of girls who wear swimsuits in the summer._ _

__"Do you like guys?" Haruka asks Rin, and is not very surprised at being shoved up against the shower tiles. Neither of them like talking._ _

__But the kiss is a surprise._ _

__Haruka had expected his first kiss to be "nice", in some way, because Makoto has told him they are and because Rin's mouth would be wet. But Rin's mouth is full of teeth as well as saliva, and the tiles are cold and slippery._ _

__But when Haruka puts his hands on Rin's shoulders, it's Rin who pulls away, grabbing his things and walking out dripping wet._ _

__Maybe a kiss would have been better in the pool, Haruka thinks, letting himself out. But maybe not._ _

__\---_ _

__"Rei-chan has a new notebook," Nagisa is saying. "To keep track of where I like being--"_ _

__Entering the water of the pool scatters sound. Words aren't words underwater, and Haruka likes that simplicity. He can hear Makoto's long arms arcing backwards through the water and the splashier strokes of Rei's butterfly. When Haruka surfaces from his entry, he can hear Nagisa and Gou's chatter, their voices, but stray syllables in his left ear, in his right, among the spray._ _

__None of it sounds like the water when Rin's limbs are cutting through it._ _

__\---_ _

__Haruka waits for ten minutes after one before he texts "Michael Phelps". Rin has never been late before. He calls the number, hanging up after only two rings._ _

__When he appears, Rin doesn't look like he was asleep. He also doesn't look like he was swimming. He looks like he doesn't want to be there, but he lets Haruka into his school and into the pool, just like always. He strips down to his swimsuit beside Haruka, just like always. His strokes are clumsy for two laps and then he settles into his rhythm._ _

__And it's good, in the water, Rin's strokes and Haruka's strokes. Not in time or harmony, just in the water._ _

__But when Rin stops, Haruka does, too._ _

__"Don't kiss me," Rin says._ _

__"I'm not going to," Haruka replies, breast-stroking closer but staying in his lane._ _

__They're both treading water._ _

__"Ok, I do like guys," Rin says. "But just watching. I just like watching you swim. A lot. That's it."_ _

__By the time he fumbles through that much of an explanation, Rin's hands are tangled up in the string of lane-markers. At ten, Haruka thought that Rin loved swimming as much as he did. At seventeen, he knows they love it differently, but no less strong._ _

__"You've been watching me for months," Haruka says. "I don't mind."_ _

__"Yeah, but I can take care of myself," Rin says. "I don't want you to... whatever."_ _

__"I think I like the water better than I like guys or girls."_ _

__Rin rolls his eyes._ _

__"But I like it better with you in it."_ _

**Author's Note:**

> You can also comment at my [LJ](http://threewalls.livejournal.com/368366.html) or my [DW](http://threewalls.dreamwidth.org/241473.html).


End file.
